Heart to heart, we can face anything

Roy and I have done our best to really open our hearts to share Keagan's life story and our journey through this pregnancy. We try to share our joys, our fears, our love and our frustrations as honestly as we can. This is very therapeutic for us and it is so wonderful to hear how people's lives have been affected by Keagan and our story. Today marks 23 weeks in our pregnancy, and Keagan has been so influential in so many people's lives. We are so proud of our baby boy. By opening our hearts, we have connected with so many of your hearts and between the three of us, the hundreds of you and of course our God, we have confidence in our ability to make it through any situation we face. Thank you for connecting with us, heart to heart!

We have received more gifts of love this week. These gifts touch our hearts and warm them greatly! Thank you to all of you for your continued thoughts and prayers, and thank you to the individuals mentioned below for your additional outpowering of love.

This gift is from a long-time family friend, Chelsey. She crafts absolutely adorable pieces (www.etsy.com/shop/BaldBloomers) . If Keagan was a girl, he would definitely have some headbands from her!!! We'll have to wait for him to have a sister to get some of those though :) Roy ordered this necklace from Chelsey, but she would not let him pay for it. She is an amazing person and we are so thankful for this expression of love and support. I absolutely love the necklace! It is a little difficult to see in the picture, but the bird's nest holds one blue egg to represent our perfect little guy. I can not get over the beauty of this piece. Thank you Chelsey!

These beautiful flowers are from my college roommate, Lindsy. Lindsy is an awesome person and she loves Keagan just as if he were part of her family. Even though we don't get to talk much, she stays updated on how we're doing and sends sporadic messages to show her love to our family. This time she must not have thought a message was enough! I was very surprised to see a box of flowers on our front porch when I got home from work yesterday. I did not have a very good day so I thought the flowers might be from Roy, but I was even more suprised to see they were from Lindsy. She just wanted to send them (overnight, mind you) to let us know how happy she was that our fluid check went so well and once again to tell us she loves us. Such an unneccesary, unexpected but totally appreciated gift. Thank you little Linds!!! We love you too!

This picture frame is from Roy's boss, Emily. Roy's work has been amazing and so understanding with our weekly appointments and allowing me to call his cell phone at any time, but his boss went above and beyond. Roy may not like that I am putting this, but when Emily gave him this gift it brought tears to his eyes. We are both so appreciative that she would think of us at this personal level when she could easily keep their relationship completely work-related. The frame is able to have a sound recorded and at the bottom says "An unforgettable sound...an unforgettable love" How beautiful! Our plan is to record Keagan's heartbeat for now, and then if we have a chance record him crying after he is born. I say "if we have a chance" because Keagan may, but we have FAITH that he will not, be stillborn, but some babies with anencephaly are not able to cry. We know it may sound crazy that we want to have his cry recorded so we can hear it at any hour (usually quiet is desired by new parents), but this will be a precious and unforgettable sound to us and we want to have it forever. Thank you Emily for giving us this priceless opportunity to save the sounds of Keagan's life!

These books are all from Roy's former co-worker and our friend, Amy. She sent a cute note with them that read Keagan would be getting these from me anyways so now he just gets them a little early. Daddy's got some reading to do now! (I, being a children's book fanatic, have already read all three of them tonight!) In "A Kiss for Little Bear" a kiss for Little Bear from his grandmother is passed around from animal to animal. It reminds me of how Keagan's story is being "passed around" and shared with so many people and each person contributes to the journey. "Guess How Much I Love You" is an adorable story of trying to express the amount of love that is felt. As I'm sure you know, it is hard to tell someone how much you love them and get effectively get the extent across. If I had to choose words to tell Keagan how much Daddy and I love him, "to the moon and back" would not even come close. I absolutely love "The Giving Tree" so I am very thankful that she sent this to us. It is a story of giving until you have given everything you have. We would give anything to keep Keagan happy and to have him be healthy. An entirely healthy baby may or may not be in God's will, but we will give all of our love regardless. Thank you Amy for these books and for these reminders to us!

Our cousin, Trish (http://www.luckylolastudios.com/) was very generous and gave us a maternity session last night. We had so much fun, and it was enjoyable to feel Keagan kick when the flash would go off. We LOVE how the pictures turned out and are more grateful than words can express to Trish for helping us capture this very special time in our lives. Here are a few of our favorites:

Once again, a huge thank you to Trish and Lucky Lola Studios!!!

On the website anencephalie-info.org, it talks about what babies with anencephaly may or may not be able to do. I love this line: "But most of all, they respond to our love: you don’t need a complete brain to give and receive love- all you need is a heart!" It is amazing what the human can heart do, and we are amazed by your hearts and the love you show our family. Thank you!